Score each gate by adoption risk
A core feature placed behind a paywall carries the highest adoption risk, since new users can't reach first value without paying; nice-to-have features behind a paywall carry very little risk.
Free paywall placement tool
PaywallSense
List your product's features and where you're considering placing a paywall, and get each one scored for whether it will help or hurt early adoption based on how core it is to first value.
- Calculated instantly from your inputs
- No signup or data submission
- A focused next step for MVP planning
Your entries remain in this browser session and are not sent to MVPHub.
Your inputs
List your features and proposed gating
Enter one feature per line as Feature | how core to first value (core/supporting/nice-to-have) | proposed gate (free/paywalled).
Your calculated result
Your result
0/100
Planning score
Recommended next actions
How it works
Flag mismatched gates
Core features that are paywalled and nice-to-have features left free are both flagged as likely mismatches — the paywall should sit around the value that justifies payment, not block the value that earns trust.
Recommend where to move the paywall
Misplaced gates get a specific recommendation to move free or move behind the paywall, so the free experience still reaches a real "aha" moment.
Frequently asked questions
Should literally everything core be free?
The features needed to reach one meaningful first value moment should be free — but a core workflow at larger scale (e.g. unlimited team members) can still be paywalled past a generous starter limit.
What if a supporting feature is expensive to run?
Cost-to-serve is a legitimate reason to paywall a supporting feature even if adoption risk is moderate — this tool scores UX/adoption risk, not your unit economics, so weigh both.
Is it ever fine to paywall a nice-to-have?
Yes — nice-to-have features are usually the safest place to put a paywall since new users don't need them to experience core value.
How is this different from UpgradeFlow?
PaywallSense decides which features should sit behind a paywall in the first place; UpgradeFlow designs the prompt experience once a user hits an existing limit or gated feature.
How we compare
| Capability | MVPHub | Paywalling every advanced-sounding feature by default | A generic freemium feature-gating template |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scores your actual features by adoption risk | ✓ | × | × |
| Flags specific mismatched gates | ✓ | × | × |
| Recommends where to move each gate | ✓ | × | — |
| Instant, no analytics setup required | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
MVPHub scores your specific features against how core they are to first value. Paywalling by default, or copying a generic gating template, risks blocking the exact value that earns early trust.